We’re proud to announce that today the White House is recognizing Eric Kansa as a “Champion of Change” in Open Science. We are honored and gratified that the White House has chosen to recognize the research community in the humanities and social sciences, including archaeology, the discipline where we focus most of our efforts. We are also honored that the White House chose to recognize an “#AltAc” (alternative academic), a growing global community of scholars working outside of traditional academic career path.

“Openness” is still struggling to take root in many areas of the humanities and social sciences. Many of the models like PLoS or Arxiv.org that have proved so effective in other areas of the sciences still need to be adapted to fit the funding and professional context of the humanities and social sciences. We hope this kind of recognition helps to further galvanize efforts to improve accessibility and equity in the humanities and social sciences, and we hope this helps to build bridges with other fields of research.

Over the past 10 years, we at the AAI have promoted data sharing in archaeology, and we have developed Open Context to that end. However, our efforts are not limited to Open Context. We have also worked to improve communication in archaeology and other areas of the humanities and social sciences, and have joined in a much larger community, rich with talent, humor, and energy to make research more accessible and ethical.

Eric joins 12 others at the White House today. The event can be viewed live here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/live. A YouTube video will be available after the event. The White House press release is available here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/openscience_release_6-18-13.pdf.